More Than This - One Direction
by Revenge Avenge
Summary: A One Direction fanfiction using the members of the band and two fictional girl characters. For Matilda, my Rose.
1. Chapter 1

More than This.

The year was coming to an end; it was getting warmer and warmer every day and with each warm day we found ourselves on the warm sand by the North beach of our city. Classes were over and we had officially finished our first course in university, we had the whole Christmas holidays to ourselves before we had to settle down in the New Year to figure our lives out. I would have been stressed if I had thought too much about job prospects or even living situations, but the warm sun on my back made it impossible to think further then now.  
Rose was at my side, my best friend since year eight, we were an A-team, a dream team. I was spontaneous and very often reckless, while she was more careful and planned things, it was how we worked but somehow we managed to fit together well. She rolled over onto her stomach and brushed her long red hair off her back.  
_"I can't believe how warm it is today, If I wasn't so tired I'd be complaining"  
_I nodded in my dreamy state, my mind a million miles from here. The thought of months back at home was something I had been looking forward too, but knew that it would be an isolated holiday away from friends and I had always promised myself to travel overseas after finishing University. I rolled onto my back and rested on my elbows, blinking to adjust my eyes to the bright sun that blasted onto the sand.  
_"Remember all those times I said that I was going to travel overseas?"_ I reminded  
She groaned a yes to me _"I'm sick of saying things and never doing it…I don't want to be that person. I want to stick to my word this time" _She sat upon her elbows; it must have been the seriousness in my voice that caught her attention.  
_"You know what? I actually had a feeling you were going to say something about that…" _  
We laughed at each other but the thought was still nagging at the back of my brain.  
_"Why don't we though…."  
"Why don't we what?"  
"Let's go overseas together…we both have money saved up" _  
Rose frowned but then her face burst into a big grin, there was something mischievous about it. I couldn't help but smile back, the excitement was built up in my stomach already.  
_"Where will we go? We always said America…"_ She traced patterns in the sand as we talked  
_"I know…but you've been there and I can't help but feel that Europe is calling us" _I laughed _"Plus we can stay with your sister for a little bit and I have some family there…it will save us a tonne of money" _  
_'s sister was living in London and had been for nearly two years. It was an easy accommodation, and I know that they had been missing each other since she left. There was a silence between us, a thoughtful one where you forget to speak because your mind wanders thinking over the conversation, the waves crashed behind us a few times before we knocked ourselves out of it.  
_"Alright…I'm in if you are" _Rose said, She had thought this one through quicker than any other plan before.  
_"Really?"_ I said, my face almost ripping from smiling so much _"I mean…really, really?"  
_She nodded and beamed at me _"We'll go to a travel agent this afternoon find a good deal and pick a date" _My stomach started crawling I was so excited.  
_"I can't believe we are actually going to England!" _I said loudly flipping myself over and sitting up.  
Rose sat up next to me and we watched the beach thoughtfully.

Within the week we had set a date, booked the tickets, organised travel from the airport and even a place to stay with Rose's sister and started packing. We had decided sooner rather than later so we didn't back out. It was now the night before and my parents were still uncertain but I had been working solidly for two years saving up for something I wasn't even sure of and it had a purpose. My mum was chatting on the phone to me, making sure I had been packing everything I needed.  
_"You have to ring your uncle and find out where his family is…you can stay with them for a while I'm sure"_  
_"yeah mum, don't worry about it. I'll make sure I ring later or something. Should I pack my swimmers? I mean its England….and its winter… but hot tubs are popular there right?"_  
"Darling just make sure you pack a good jacket, you know how easily you get sick"  
I rolled my eyes, trust mum to think of that, my mind was more focussed on making room for duty free Jack Daniels and Vodka.  
_"I gotta go mum; I'll ring you tomorrow before we go to the airport okay?" _  
We said goodbyes and I hung up throwing my phone onto the bed. My suitcase was almost packed, I was definitely more of a 'just in case' packer, and after three re-packs I had sorted my clothes down to the bare necessities. Rose knocked on my door lightly; she had been packing in her room next door.  
_"Loti" _My full name was Charlotte, but I'd somehow managed to shorten it through the years. Rose held up two floral skirts _"I know I can't take both…so which one?" _  
I pointed to the right, it was always a favourite of mine, high wasted and flattering in all the right places. She sat down at my desk and looked at my clothes _"I think I may have over packed" _She said checking my suitcase.  
_"I had to weed out so much just so I can fit in some duty free things"  
"Well we leave tomorrow so make sure you're up early" _ She was always on top of her plans, I bet she had everything written down in a little journal too _"And please don't forget your passport" _She said standing up and making her way to the doorI held it up and sarcastically waved it at her back and chucked it into my carryon bag.  
_"Oh man Imagine if we met someone famous" _I called out to her in the next room  
_"It better be someone good!" _She called back to me.

That night I couldn't sleep, at all. My heart was beating at the thought of flying over tomorrow, I had only been on a plane once in my life and it wasn't anything major, just to Brisbane, an hour flight from Sydney. Rose on the other hand was quite experienced, and I know that she would be good company for a long flight like this. My mind drifted but never fully to sleep or so I thought until there was a loud banging on my door and my name being yelled across the house.

_"WAKE UP WE HAVE TO LEAVE, YOU OVER SLEPT. DID YOU EVEN SET AN ALARM? C'MON WE WILL BE LATE!" _

I shot up in my bed and checked the clock, it was 5am. Our plane wasn't until 11am and it was only a short trip to the airport. I managed to get myself out of bed and dressed before Rose came by and punched me or something. My heart was nearly leaping out of my throat.  
This was really happening….I was really going to get there….I looked into the mirror and smiled at my very tired self, England here we come!


	2. Chapter 2

More Than This

I opened my eyes and blinked a few times to focus, we were still on the plane, just like we were three hours ago before I fell asleep. My neck was cramped, my legs were stiff and I was too tall for these small seats. I looked to Rose next to me who was also sleeping, her face and fallen forward giving her a less then pleasant face, I stifled my laughter as I grabbed my phone and quickly and quietly snapped a photo, this was a tradition we had – sleeping photos-  
She shook and then opened her eyes and gathered herself before looking at me _"did you take a photo?"_ She asked suspiciously. _  
_I nodded, I wasn't going to lie. _"It's a real beauty…I think it might be my background"_  
She struggled for my phone before I showed her the picture, we cracked up laughing, at least she could take a good joke. There were a few looks from other flyers, but after all these hours together I think they had already gathered that we were the giggling types. Literally we giggled at everything.  
The cute guys at the airport, the screaming lost child who clung to my leg before realising I wasn't it's mother, we even giggled when we got completely lost in the shops and thought we were going to miss our flight, although that time it was more me laughing, Rose didn't seem to find that as humorous.  
_"I hate these seats…I'm 99% sure I don't even have legs anymore"  
_Rose squirmed in her seat, she was a good foot shorter than me and had enough left over leg room for me to kick my right let over to her side.  
_"So we've got site seeing tomorrow and the next few days, I've got it all written down and times that we can go…"_ She continued to talk through all the plans and pulled out a small journal, I told you she had one. I nodded although I had been left behind long ago, my mind wandered too easily and now it was definitely off the path.  
_"Are you listening?" _Rose's voice threw me back into the conversation.  
_"Yeah….Yeah of course….Big ben…Prince Harry"  
_She pulled a face at me and I smiled _"Stop worrying, this is going to be great" _

The plane got in and Roses sister met us at the airport, that's when we received the first bad news.  
With Hannah's apartment being renovated the couches we thought we were sleeping on were currently pushed up against a wall and there was no room to stay, it threw our plans a little but our spirits were too high to be knocked down.  
_"There is a great place just around the corner, really cheap and a bar underneath for you to stumble home afterwards" _Hannah said, always finding humour in the situation.  
So that's where we headed a small motel around the corner of Hannah's even smaller apartment.  
_"The Foxes Tail" _Rose said snapping a picture on her camera and then a few of me underneath the sign, we were such tourists.  
_"It's so cute; this is exactly what I would imagine London to be like" _I said dragging my heavy suitcase behind me as we made our way into the hotel. Judith behind the desk happily gave us keys to our room, and then a thirty minute Q&A about Australia, including telling us a story about her step-sister once went to Sydney when she was a child. Rose and I, unable to be impolite to strangers, especially chatty ones, smiled and nodded along with her until finally we were able to climb the never ending stairs to our room, our suitcases being beaten against each step as we went.  
_"Oh and ladies the pub has dinners at a very good price every night from 6pm!" _She called after us.

The room was reasonable size for the price, with two queen beds and a balcony. The walls were a lime green from the sixties and the artwork was questionable.  
_"We're in London" _I said to Rose opening the doors to the balcony, the air was cool and the traffic was dense but it was magical. I knew Rose felt the same because we both started to become a little over excited as we jumped around the room trying out our best British accents.  
_"So its 4:30pm and freezing….what do you want to do?" _ I asked Rose, hoping that her plans weren't too tightly packed in.  
_"Well I thought we'd be too jetlagged for anything tonight so I didn't plan anything…." _  
We sat on our chosen beds, both of us surprisingly spirited considering the cold and lack of sleep in the past 24 hours.  
_"Alright…how about we get dressed go to the pub downstairs for dinner and then take a walk through the streets for a bit"  
_She smiled and started ripping through her clothes for the best thing to wear.

Showered and dressed we now squeezed into the small bathroom and took up every inch of the mirror to do our make-up. Rose had decided on a stockings and skirt with a long sleeve shirt and jacket, while I went for a jeans, boots, rolling stones shirt and thick coat. We looked good and we felt even better, despite the ever creeping fatigue.  
We closed the door behind us and Rose pocketed the key, although we both had a bad history of locking keys in, we knew that she had the better chance of not losing it like I would.  
The bar was small but friendly, there was a nice wood fire on the far wall and tables and around it. _  
"Allo" _Said the man behind the barwe later got introduced to as Barry _"what can I get you girls?"  
_We looked around the bar _"Can I get a Red Bull and Vodka please?" _Rose said politely  
_"And a jack and coke for me please!" _I added on the end.  
_"Australian's aye? Bet you're missing the sun now, probably won't be back for a while…." _ We laughed and took the drinks as he made them  
"Yeah we definitely chose the wrong month to come…but we're hoping to see snow"  
He nodded and started pouring the coke into my drink _"Well you two girls enjoy yourselves, you're staying up stairs aren't you? If you need anything you come to me okay?"  
_Barry was lovely, his accent was thick and choppy and he had one of those faces that at first you might find threatening, but really he had a heart of gold.  
We took our drinks and made our way to a booth near the fire, the best seat in the house. It was quiet, awkwardly quiet, apart from the crackling of the fire and the faint noise of some folk music in the background, we sat in a bar in the backstreets of London with a loved up couple to the far right of us and two drunk loners each picking separate seats by the windows.  
Rose looked at me and we attempted to keep straight faces, but we both knew what each other were thinking _What the hell where we doing?! _ Both bursting out in laughter we held our drinks up.  
_"To our little holiday, our adventure and our own direction in life!" _We toasted and drunk up until both our faces were warm and our laughter became more frequent.

According to Barry, The Foxes Tail had a strange way of making people's dreams come true, he talked of a couple that came here when their marriage was on the rocks, they stayed for two nights and by the time they left they claimed that they had never been more in love. Another story was of a man named Jeremiah who used his last money to buy a meal at the pub and that night as he left he found the wallet of a man who then employed him and is now living in one of the best apartments in the city.  
_"and sometimes" _ Barry continued _"We even get some famous people, of course we didn't know them when they came in but when they left….well that's when their career started. Musicians come here when they can't find the right tune and leave with the best song they've ever written"  
_Rose and I, wide eyed looked at him in surprise. We were now on our fourth round of drinks, more than 28 hours lack of sleep and an England high, we would believe anything. Almost anything.

Barry took the empty glasses from our table and left us to the next round, the amount of people hadn't picked up at all in fact the loved up couple had left a few hours ago. Thank god their romance was making both Rose and I, a little jealous although we'd probably not admit that. We had been single for more than 6 months or so now, never able to find the right person and always attracting the bad ones. It was all part of the journey I guess, you have to go through people to find out what it is you want in someone. If worse came to worse we just joked that we 'weren't really looking for a relationship right now' even if we were.  
The door to the pub jingled open and two people walked in, Rose and I stayed as quiet as we could in the tipsy state we were in. I knew that if I flicked my eyes up to them she would hiss at me to stop staring so I kept them on her. From the corner of my eye I noticed them order their drinks and make their way to a window seat, feeling one of them watching us I looked down, hoping that was less suspicious.  
_"Who is it" _Rose mouthed to me trying to act busy with her glass, I sipped my own and shrugged, I could feel my cheeks burning already, these drinks were working too well.  
_"Let's just go over there" _Rose laughed, when she was slightly intoxicated she became more confident than a Victoria secret model, her sober self probably would have cringed at every word.  
I laughed _"What if they're on a date or something? ...That would be too awkward" _  
Our hushed conversation must have been something curious to the people of the bar, especially considering that our hushed voices were about as subtle as a moose.  
_"Oh man I love this song, Barry can you turn it up?" _I shouted across the bar, Barry laughed and flicked his bar cloth over his shoulder. Bon Jovi – you give love a bad name. At least every person knew the chorus and I could hear one of the drunken loners singing along with me. Rose flicked her red hair to each side of her head over and over again and I did my classic move, pointing. I pointed at her I pointed at Barry at the fire place and then at the two guys that had just walked in who were now joining in with us. I could make out their faces now, both young, around our age and they were now moving across the room with their drinks towards us. I couldn't do anything so I kept dancing slightly, Rose hadn't even noticed that they were coming over and continued her dance move until she smacked her head right into one of the guys.  
_"Oh My God!" _She exclaimed trying to brush her hair out of her eyes in order to see who she had hit.  
_"You're moves are dangerous" _mumbled her victim sweetly, he had honey brown eyes and light brown hair with a sweet face, his friend had dark brown messy curls and lime green eyes that sparkled with the fire.  
_"Can we join you?" _His friend asked  
"_Ah..hmm…alrightttt" _Rose joked, she was really tipsy now and very confident and extremely funny.  
I laughed along with her as they chose their seats; brown eyes sat facing Rose and Green eyes across from me.  
_"Are you guys from here?"_ _Green eyes asked  
"No, we're actually from Australia, just flown in today" _  
_"Ah, I thought I could hear accents" _He said _"It's so beautiful there, we both went with a few of our mates just last year"  
_I politely smiled then looked at Rose who was looking at them both suspiciously _  
"What's wrong?" _ I asked, She held a finger to them both  
_"You two are so familiar…I feel like we've met before…or I've seen you somewhere?"  
_The boys looked to each other and then back to her, their expressions were playful but there was something more to the look that they gave each other, a conversation like Rose and I had.  
_"Oh really?...I don't think we've met"_ Brown eyes said quietly, he was a little shy but in the way that made you want to just hug him or something, Green eyes was more confident and cheeky.  
_"Maybe we should introduce ourselves?_" I suggested taking a sip of my drink  
_"Alright, but let us get you drinks first….Jack and Coke?" _Green eyes asked, I nodded trying to be as sweet as possible. Brown eyes pointed to Rose's drink _"let me guess…Red bull and…vodka?" _She nodded. They both got up and moved to the bar and I looked to Rose excitedly.  
_"Wow"_ I said to her _"They are so lovely and their British accents are so cute!" _I was a sucker for accents. _  
"I swear I know them Loti! They look so familiar, they look famous or something" _  
This wouldn't be the first time we had met someone famous at a pub, but that time it was a football player of the Australian team, we weren't 100% sure who they really were but after seeing a Wikipedia page we decided to keep drinking with them. It was a story that we regularly used as our 'remember that time…' but when you don't really watch football, it was never that amazing.  
_"Let's just wait, they could just be good look-a-likes or something" _The boys returned with drinks for us all.  
_"Thank you, that's really kind of you" _I said looking to Green eyes; he smiled back _"You're welcome" _I broke the eye contact and looked to Rose.  
_"Okay…I'll start, my name is Rose, and this is Loti or Charlotte" I_ smiled and waved as they nodded taking In the information.  
_"Ah well I'm Harry"_ Green eyes said _"and this is Liam" _  
We greeted each other by our names when Rose suddenly made a noise and hit her hand on the table lightly.  
_"You guys look so familiar! I just can't think of it"  
_Liam smiled at her; I had noticed that he had been watching her a bit but I knew that Rose hadn't quite noticed that yet.  
_"Ah..well we're actually in a band, you might have heard of it" _Liam said looking to Harry _"Its called One Direction" _  
Our eyes widened as Rose and I looked at each other but Rose shook her head _"No you're not…"_ They laughed at her and drank their drinks.  
_"No but serious…you're not are you?" _I said now confused _"you couldn't be…" _  
Harry nodded _"yeah, we actually, seriously are…I'm Harry Styles" _  
It was surreal, he did look familiar Rose was right and of course I knew who One Direction were, I had their songs on my phone right now, but something in my brain was either faulting or just too over excited to do anything.  
_"I need proof" _Rose said, Liam instantly leapt to his pocket and pulled out his wallet showing us both his licence, Harry did the same.  
I couldn't tell but my mouth was nearly hitting the table and my eyes were nearly bursting out of my head. I was telepathically screaming at Rose my excitement, but tried to remain as collected as I could.  
_"You guys are really… two fifths of One Direction…Why on earth are you here in this pub? Wouldn't you be in like the Greek Islands or something?" _I laughed casually and took a large gulp of my drink.  
_"Well we're staying up the street and everyone in the music industry knows of this little place and its magic" _Liam said, finally warming up a little and chatting more.  
_"Yeah so we decided we'd check it out…I guess that magic worked" _Harry said winking, his smile was contagious and slightly crooked, I gigged back, giggling feels so childish but it's all I could manage.  
_"So Rose, Charlotte tell us about yourselves" _Liam said, his eyes never leaving Rose's now slightly blushing face. I guess she finally cottoned on to the attention, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face and I noticed at from the corner of my eye, neither could Harry.


End file.
